The Dividends of Giving People Room to Innovate

Like most software companies, K2 puts a lot of time and effort into innovating our product portfolio. Yet when the product is shipped and our customers get ahold of the technology, we usually find that the innovation journey has just begun.

This is a fact of life in the tech industry, and after a while you realize: innovation has no boundaries. Any time we think we’ve pushed to the limit, our customers take it a step further. Often they’ll do more with the technology than we even thought possible.

This happens because K2 builds with the express intent to enable customers to be agile and take their solutions to the next level. And that same philosophy extends to our partners — and our own organization.

The single most important thing any business needs to succeed is hire the right people. Whenever we hire someone, we want them to be better than us at what they do. But just like shipping a product, having great talent in place is just the beginning. No matter how skilled your people are, they can’t flourish unless they’re given the tools and conditions to succeed. So we work to provide an office culture of empowerment and trust, and really encourage employees to be themselves. And at the same time, we measure results so people are incentivized for taking risks.

All of this means people can operate in an environment where they’re motivated by imagination, rather than fear. When they don’t have to fear for their jobs, they’re more likely to take initiative, go out and get things done. Empowering people in this way allows a company to accomplish more collectively than it ever could as a mere collection of individuals.

Enjoying your work isn’t just about happy hour with your coworkers. It’s about applying your skills to accomplish something better together. It’s about seeing inspired ideas come to life, witnessing your hard work, and that of your team, come to fruition. Business is a long game. We want customers to win, and we want employees to win. You do that not just by giving them the tools and technologies to succeed, but also by giving them the room to dream big and go for it. Follow #whyk2 or @k2onk2 to learn what K2 employees enjoy most about their work at K2.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt

For more, read here what I shared with Silicon Review about how K2 is delivering innovation that changes the way people work.